Means for freeing horses from vehicles.



No. 820,381. PATENTED MAY 8, '1906. D. BOLDOG.

MEANS FOR FREEING HORSES FROM VEHICLES.

APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 9, 1905.

WITNESSES:

ANDREW. a. cmmm c0, PMOW-Llmocmrlrtna wasmucmn, u c;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BOLDOG, OF NEW YORK,

J OHANN MELEGA,

DANIEL MEANS FOR FREEING N. Y., 'ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

HORSES FROM VEHICLES.

No. 820,381. Original application filed April 26, 1905, Serial No. 257,405.

.Patented May 8, 1906.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DANIEL BOLDOG, ing at New York city, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and use ing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part thereof.

My invention relates to means for effectuating a quick and complete freeing from the vehicle which may be drawn by them of a team of horses which may start to run away in order that all injury or danger thereof to the occupants of a carriage may be certainly avoided in the event of the horses taking fright and getting beyond control by the person driving them.

Previous to my invention means have been suggested and devised for this purpose; but nothing heretofore suggested that I know-of has been found to possess practical merit such as has led to its use to any material extent notwithstanding the generally-recognized great benefit which must arise from the use of such a contrivance.

I propose to provide for general use such appliances to a carriage or. to combine with t e vehicle such a mechanism or such evices to be under the control of the driver or other occupant of the vehicle, as will enable the person in the carriage to instantaneously and effectually accom lish the detachment from the carriage of tfie harness of and the team hitched thereto, while at the same time such mechanism shall be comparatively simple and economic of construction, perfectly durable, and not liable to any derangement of any of its parts that can possibly interfere with certainty of perfect operation in the emergency which may render necessary its use. I now have pending in the United States Patent Office an application, Serial No. 257,405, which has been passed for issue and which originally contained three claims covering all the parts of my invention; but having been required to eliminate out of my said case the subject-matter of invention referred to in the third claim thereof as not permissible in one and the same case with the subjects-matter of claims one and two I now make this case as a divisional application, on

I Fig. 3

so much of the invention originally claimed residby me (in my said pending and allowed a plication) as I have been required to maffe the subject of a separate case. Inasmuch, however, as the particular art or improvement made the subject of the hereinafter to be recited claim is necessarily associated operatively with the rest of my improvement in means to free horses from vehicles when running away, I deem it expedient and proper in this case to illustrate the whole contrivance invented by me, and hence in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this s eciflcation, I have duplicated the views of t e drawings of my present pending and allowed case and will now proceed to describe my present invention by reference thereto, as follows:

To these ends and objects my invention consists in the novel means or the novel combinations, with the carriage, of certain operative devices or working parts, which I will now proceed to describe and that will be found most particularly pointed out in the claims of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will now proceed to more fully describe it, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, an in which I have shown my improved means carried into effeet in the precise form of mechanism under which I have so far successfully practiced my invention, though modifications may be made in the details of the shown mechanism without departing from my said invention.

In the drawin s, Figure 1 is a central longitudinal vertica section of the forward portion of a four-wheeled carriage comprising my invention, in which for the sake of economizing space the greater portion of the pole is broken out and the forward end thereof moved toward the point of attachment of the pole to the carriage. Fig. 2 is a partial bottom view of the same. Fig. 3 is a partial detail rear view of the forward cross-bar of the carriage, drawn on a somewhat-enlarged scale to show particularly one of the several (duplicate) detachable fastening devices. Fig. 4 is a detail vertical cross-section at a plane indicated by the dotted line 4 4 at Fig. 5 is a detail view of my twowhich I seek to secure Letters Patent for only l part detachable yoke for the pole-straps.

In the several figures the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference.

'A is the front seat A, the dashboard-floor; (or foot-rest of said seat B, the hind, and C the front, wheels of the carriage, the front part of which is mounted, through the medium of the fifth-wheel a, on the supporting portion 1) of the running-gear, all in any of the well-known ways, while C is a footpresser button at the upper end of a vertically-movable rod or spindle i, which is located within the axis of the fifth-wheel pivotal connection of the carriage-body with the running-gear and which is provided, as shown, with a surrounding spiral compressing-spring h, which operates to maintain this movable rod 01 in its highermost normal position.

g is the front bar, to which are attached in a detachable manner by means of devices to be presently described the swingletrees E, to

. which are hitched in the usual manner the ametrically-arranged recess traces of the harness, and e is the carriagepole, that is, as usual, detachably connected with the forward end portion f of the running-gear frame of the vehicle.

At the forward end of the pole e is located my novel two-part metallic yoke or duplex detachable loop, to which the pole-straps of the harnesses are fastened in the ordinary way in hitching up the team. This device in lieu of being permanently connected with the pole is detachable therefrom and is also made in two separate parts G G each composed, as shown, of an eye ortion to hitch one of the pole-straps to and a leg-like part that is removably fitted within a central longitudinal hole in the end of the pole in such manner that it can be easily pulled out to completely extricate the device from the pole, while at the same time it is capable of perfectly performing the usual function of a yoke-when the harnessed-up team has to hold back (or pull back) on the pole going downhill or in stopping the locomotion of or draft on the carriage.

The extreme forward end of the pole, which, as I have said, has'a central hole or bore for the accommodation of the two leg-like portions of the two metal devices G G has a di or groove at 1", into which fit, as shown, (see Fig. 5,) certain portions of the duplex yoke and which operate to retain in perfect position during use the latter or prevent any axial movement within the bore of the pole of the two leg-like portions which are located within said bore.

This combined arrangement of the parts G G with the centrally-bored pole end is necessary in order that when in their operative or normal relative arrangements the pole and the loops or eyes, to which are hitched the pole-straps, may be and may operate just the same as the usual construction, in which the metallic and wooden parts are permanently or inseparably combined, while at the same time (in the event of a runaway of the team) when the rest of the harness shall have been wholly detached from the carriage (in a manner to be presently described) the team in leaving the carriage with all the harness on will pull out and carry ofi the devices G G to which the pole-straps are securely hitched, and also that in leaving the vehicle each horse will carry off one of the two devices (or one-half of the said duplex or two-part yoke) G G thus being wholly disconnected by any harness ortrappings from the other horse, and this I consider of great importance, for were the horses after having the rest of the harness detached from the carriage coupled together by the pole-straps both hitched to some one device they not being free to pursue separate courses would be more liable to injury to themselves and people and be less easy of stoppage that when free to travel (or run) in different courses of travel.

The swingletrees E, to which the traces are hitched in the usual manner, are each cou-' pled to the carriage cross-bar g by means of two detachable couplers j and may, at the pleasure of the driver, be instantly detached therefrom by the means and in the manner which I will now explain.

Immediately in rear of the cross-bar g and arranged parallel therewith is a sliding rod m, that is mounted in suitable bearing-eyes r which project rearwardly from said bar, and that is kept or held in its normal position endwise by spiral compressionsprings Z, mounted thereon and acting between op osing sets of the rod-bearing eyes r and co ars t, fast on the rod, (all as clearly shown in the drawings,) and this slide-rodm is formed or provided with four tongue-like devices n, which when the rod m is in its normal position engage with and maintain in their normal ositions the four detachable devices 7', to w ich the swingletrees E are secured. Each of these couplers is formed, as shown, (see Figs. 1, 3, 4,) with a horizontal leg-like ortion j which passes through and loosely Ets within a hole running crosswise throu h the bar 9 and has a latch-like inner end, which engages ositively with one of the tongue-pieces or atching-forks n of the slide-bar m, all in such manner that by an endwise movement of rod m in the direction indicated by the halfarrow at Fig. 3 and to the proper extent the locking-tongue n will be thrown out of engagement with the latch-like part j of the swmgletree attachment, and the latter and the tree E will be carried ofi by the horse harnessed thereto.

At the middle of the slide-rod m are two fast collars 0 0, intermediately of which there is forked around said shaft the upper bifurcated end of an arm I),

of which is fast on a horizontally-arranged the lower hubbed end rock shaft I, that extends rearwardly, as shown, being supported in suitable bearingboxes on the runnmg-gear of the carriage and which is provided at its rear end with a radially-projecting rigid arm t The vibratory or free end of this arm 25 of rock-shaft I is bifurcated and engages with the pin or stud o of a laterally-projecting arm 8 of the vertically-movable rod 1', hereinbefore referred to, all in such manner that whenever the said rod 2' shall be forced downwardly sufliciently the rock-shaft will be rocked sufiiciently to properlyvibrate the arm I) on the forward end thereof to move the slide rod m endwise against the holder-springs Z and effect the releasement from tongues 11/ of the four latchlike ends j of the four couplers 7'.

It will nowbe understood that in the event of the team becoming unmanageable the driver has simply to put his foot on the push-button C of the latter and push it down, whereupon,

- by means of the mechanism shown and described and its explained operation, the horses, with their harness, will be completely and also separately freed from the carriage.

What I claim in this case as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a carriage-team-releasing mechanism, the combination, with the forward end of the pole, of a two-part neck-yoke G G arranged and operating sothat upon releasement from the carriage of the traces of the harnessed team, the freed horses will each carry off, one of the parts of said two-part neck-yoke, to which the pole-straps are fastened; substantially as described and for the purpose set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 30th day of October, 1905.

DANIEL BOLDOG.

In presence of J. N. MOINTIRE, E. H. CARPENTER: 

